Abstract:With our reform and opening up, more and more foreigners are streaming into China. In order to bring convenience to foreigners, bilingual public signs are provided in many cities. Such signs perform four basis functions: direction, warning, restriction, command. They tell foreigners what they can do in this place or what they can not do there. However, there are many improper and nonstandard translated English public signs existing, which is a pressing problem because these signs have given rise to troubles and inconvenience to the foreigners in their daily life. Thus, it is not only necessary but also urgent to study how to translate public signs and how to reduce translation errors in public signs language.
Functionalism, which emerged in 1970s in Germany and has undergone a longtime development, will be used as the guideline in this thesis to analyze the existing problems in translating public signs in some cities in China. Functionalists believe that any form of translation may be conceived as a kind of action. Every action has an aim, a purpose. As the most important part of the functional theory, Skopostheorie claims that “the end justifies the means”, which gives much freedom to translators. In other words, the translation methods should be chosen purposely. Various methods can be adopted in translated work in order that the translation fulfills the intended function. Thus, this thesis, based on theoretic study of “Skopostheorie”, examines the current practice in Chinese-English translation of public signs and proposes some strategies for translators, using real cases to illustrate each of them.
Key words: public signs; Skopostheorie; function; translation strategies
中文摘要:随着我国对外交流不断扩大，越来越多的城市使用了双语公示语。公示语有以下四个功能：指示、提示、限制及禁止。所以这些双语公示语应该能够指引外国人去遵守必需的规则及行为。但是，目前许多城市存在大量的错译公示语和不规范的英语公示语，已经严重地影响了中国的对外形象，也给外国朋友的吃穿住用行带来了许多麻烦和不便。因此，研究公示语翻译的原则和方法、解决公示语翻译问题不仅十分必要，而且相当紧迫。
功能翻译理论出现在20世纪70年代的德国，经历了一个漫长的发展过程。本文以功能翻译目的理论作为指导，分析目前在公示语汉英翻译中存在的问题。功能翻译理论认为任何一种翻译活动都是一种行为，而每种活动都有一个目的。功能翻译目的理论提出了“目的决定方法”的核心原则，即翻译方法必须由译文预期目的或功能来决定。译者在翻译过程中应有目的地选择合适的译法，只要能使译文发挥预期的功能和目的，在具体的翻译当中应将各种翻译方法加以灵活运用。基于这样的思想，论文通过对实例的分析和阐释，对不同类型公示语的汉英翻译提出了一些具体的翻译策略。
关键词：公示语；目的论；功能；翻译策略
